IT168 Information At the 4th World Internet Conference in 2017, the most eye-catching topic was that domestic and foreign Internet giants and a large number of emerging startups began to compete for opportunities in the field of artificial intelligence. So for global consumers, they care about buying them. Is it a technology toy for entertainment, or is it a smart and intelligent artificial intelligence product?
As an ideal entrance for artificial intelligence, smart speakers are also the products that people pay most attention to. In fact, smart speakers are not simple speakers, it is likely to become the next generation of human-computer interaction, and in the past two months, low-cost promotions support domestic Smart speakers jumped into millions of sales. Smart speaker is one of the best consumer-grade AI products on the market. It combines many artificial innovations. It is not top-notch in terms of technical difficulty, but it can also make ordinary people enjoy the fun of technology. Smart speakers are not simple speakers, it is likely to become the next generation of human-computer interaction. It is reported that more entrepreneurial projects enter the field of smart speakers, in order to lay out smart homes in advance, and smart speakers will become an open platform and ecology in the future, and certainly not a monopoly.
Why is this seemingly niche market attracting new and emerging startups from home and abroad? For consumers, what will be bought is a cheap toy for entertainment, or is it truly amazing?
First, the smart speaker is not a simple speaker, it is likely to become the next generation of human-computer interaction. Since Amazon launched the first smart speaker Echo in 2014, it has quickly become a "superstar" product, and domestic and foreign IT giants have entered smart speakers. market. In 2015, Jingdong and HKUST jointly launched smart speaker å®å’š, 2016 Google smart speaker Google Home, 2017 Baidu company raven H, 2017 Himalayan FM Xiaoya AI, 2017 Alibaba "Tmall Elf", Apple in early 2018 The company released "HomePod", and in 2018 this year is the "outbreak year" of smart speakers.
Seeing that smart speaker products on the market are emerging, many consumers who are unclear will have questions. What is the difference between smart speakers and ordinary speakers?
With a little contrast, you can find that AI smart speakers are mainly focused on voice human-computer interaction and content services compared to traditional speakers. As long as the user moves the mouth, the AI ​​smart speaker can play music and audio books, chat with jokes, even query weather and news hotspots, and even based on various APPs on the application platform, users can use it to take out, take a taxi, online shopping. . If the consumer purchases a smart home product that can be matched, the AI ​​smart speaker can also become the central control center of the smart home, obeying the owner's command to control the lights, curtains, air conditioners, refrigerators, etc. in the home. The functions of AI smart speakers listed recently are similar, but the smart speakers launched by the Internet have their own personal style and appearance, which highlights the core advantages of their own companies. For example, the built-in AI artificial intelligence system of "Tmall Elf" integrates the information of Alipay, Taobao and rookie logistics, so that the Tmall Elf can also take out the selling and charging charges in addition to the regular functions of listening to music, setting alarm clock and checking the weather. Check the express and brush Taobao. Millet "little love students," the flagship smart home, users can use voice to manipulate millet TV, cleaning robot 300024, attending shares and other household equipment. Baidu's "small degree" is to fully combine Baidu's many years of search with artificial intelligence. Massive search information can be answered according to user questions. The future Baidu artificial intelligence is open to hardware manufacturers, more air conditioners, TVs, refrigerators and other electrical appliances. Linked to a small degree, Baidu smart speakers benefit from the huge audio content of Baidu music platform, positioned in content-type speakers, and have significant advantages in the richness of content resources. In the official propaganda case of Apple in the United States, sound quality and music are the focus of HomePod, and even hope to change the way music interacts like Ipod. But with the support of Apple's own system Siri, Apple may also join the "intrusion battle" of voice intelligence in the future.
Second, low-cost promotions to drive millions of domestic users to experience AI smart speakers In the past 2017, major manufacturers in order to seize the smart speaker users as soon as possible, launched a wave of low-cost killing. On October 20th, 2017, Tmall Elf X1 took the lead in opening the double 11 big promotion. All Taobao super members received a 400 yuan pre-order voucher. The original price of 499 yuan Tmall Elf X1 can be bought as long as 99 yuan. The sales of Tmall Elf also rushed to 1 million units. Jingdong quickly followed up on October 25, and announced that Jingdong Plus members can get a 250 yuan coupon on the basis of a straight down 100 yuan, and finally get a TOP TOP smart speaker for 49 yuan.
However, compared with the foreign bleakfriday Black Friday, the promotion of domestic smart speakers is small. 2017 "Black Friday" (November 24th), Amazon's old Echo original price is 164.99 US dollars, the promotional price is 69.99 US dollars, the price is 95 US dollars (about 630 yuan); and Google's Google Home Mini launched this year from the usual 49 The dollar has been reduced to $29, and Google Home, which was priced at $129, has also been sold at a price of $50, which is definitely a big step in price reduction.
Behind the surge in sales volume of one million, we have to see a problem: AI smart speaker as a speaker, its sound quality is not comparable to the professional speaker brand; as a smart assistant, it is not really smart, command instructions A little more complicated, I can't understand it, and I can't realize the practical functions of dripping taxis and takeaways. The smart speakers in the forefront of domestic sales, most of the buyers are young people, but the users are mainly elderly and children.
Third, the market success of AI artificial smart speakers requires real technology and practice to verify
The proven and market-proven microphone array technology and intelligent voice interaction system of AI artificial intelligence speakers are key. At present, artificial intelligence about speech recognition technology is very mature, but the main problem is that there is still a big gap in semantic understanding. Semantic comprehension is the key difficulty in the current intelligent degree to completely replace the human brain, because words have many meanings. A word and a sentence have different meanings in different contexts. AI artificial intelligence vendors need a suitable scene to collect a large amount of voice data to train the model, realize the technical data language reserve, and far-field voice interaction will drive the global smart chain. Innovation: The bottom layer includes devices, chips, and modules; the upper layer includes VOS, network, and products; the subsequent content services and so on will be changed according to the changes in voice interaction. The focus is on the market potential of the entire domestic smart speaker. The main sales market in Europe and the United States Anonsuo Alonso general manager Leng Yawei introduced: "The market demand for AI smart speakers is rigid, the voice interactive experience is perfect enough to give consumers a great experience; Alonso In the foreign countries choose to cooperate with Google Google, in the domestic Baidu big data and cloud services into the smart speaker system, based on Baidu DuerOS 2.0 platform Anonsuo mini smart speakers will be available, will give consumers a unique experience.
Anonsuo mini is currently fighting and smashing in the smart speaker market. In fact, it can only be said to be a prelude. The big screen has been opened. The smart speaker products of major domestic brands have already appeared on the scene, spelling the value, spelling the experience, spelling the function, and spreading. All kinds of competitions are dazzling, the drama is getting more and more exciting, please take a good bench and quietly enjoy the good show!
(Editor: Zhao Yanping HF094)
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